Mateen had a
troubled past. Why isn’t that the story? Indeed, why is the Islamist label so hard
to shake when it comes to lone-wolf attacks perpetrated by people from Muslim
background? Because there is a high-profile terrorist organization out there
openly calling for such attacks to take place and not simply engaging in hate
speech or speaking in hypothetical terms. That its calls tend to resonate more
profoundly with troubled and mentally ill individuals is natural. The way the
process of radicalization works in this situation, relying as it is on
self-motivation, makes preemption well-nigh impossible. Yet, the absence of
direct linkage between most attackers and the organization does not take away
from the role of ideology in cementing the resolve of the attacker during those
crucial moments leading up to the attack. The personal dimension, psychological
and social, prepares the ground for radicalization, but it takes ideology to
seal the deal.

The Western media’s preoccupation with the
background of the attackers is equally natural considering their awareness of the
overall geopolitical context for the attacks. If there is any bias here, at
least in regard to how mainstream media outlets handle the situation, it comes
often as a reflection of the media’s structural affinity for sensationalism
rather than an inherent anti-Muslim bias. But restricting the usage of the
“terrorist” label only to cases of Muslim attackers does speak of a latent
bias, perhaps stemming from the lingering “otherness” of Muslims in popular
Western consciousness. This phenomenon needs to be properly addressed by those
in charge of running mainstream media. There is a need for the adoption of
clear objective standards in this regard.

Yes, the West’s Muslim population should
be concerned about the overall impact of this situation on their future
wellbeing. But fear of rightwing backlash does not justify silence or
recalcitrance in the face of the hate within. Islamists represent a problem for
Muslims above all, and can only be defeated by other Muslims. Traditional
Muslims, however, need not give up their cherished beliefs. As is the case with
other traditional faith systems, Islam is being continuingly reinvented by its
followers, and not all reinventions are good or popular. This process is not
simply natural and unstoppable: it’s gone on hyper-drive these days due to a
variety of socioeconomic and political factors. Agreeing on a “right” and
“modern” version of Islam is not what’s stake here and should not be. This
would be a fool’s errand. In matters of faith, disagreement and reaching different
conclusions on all sorts of issues is the rule, and the idea is to find ways
that allow for this disagreement to manifest without causing social instability
or harming individual and collective rights. In other words, Muslims need to
agree on one thing: that there is no worldly authority tasked with determining
which faith and which version of the faith is true, and that only the most
extreme interpretations and practices, those calling for violence and
bloodshed, and for restricting the basic freedoms of various individuals and
groups need to be rejected and criminalized. The real challenge facing Muslims
today revolves around the need for revising their understanding of the concept
of public and private spheres, expanding the role and area of the latter.

Murdered British
Lawmaker Jo Cox Advocated for Syrians in This Powerful Speech. “On refugees,
given the escalation of the violence in Aleppo and lack of medical care available
there now, what further can the U.K. do to get the most vulnerable people out
of harm’s way?” Cox asked. “And surely, given what we know about the horror
that many of the refugee children in Europe have fled, isn’t it time to end the
government’s shameful refusal to give 3,000 unaccompanied children sanctuary
here in the U.K.?”

Go ahead, patronize me!

About Ammar

Ammar Abdulhamid is a Syrian-American author and pro-democracy activist based in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy promotion. His personal website and entries from his older blogs can be accessed here.

The Delirica

The Delirica is a companion blog to the Daily Digest of Global Delirium meant to highlight certain DDGD items by publishing them as separate posts. Also, the Delirica republishes articles by Ammar that appeared on other sites since 2016. Older articles can be found on Ammar's internet archive: Ammar.World